Anqi Cong is a student at Carnegie Mellon University studying Business Administration with a minor in Computer Science. She is a content marketer at Insightpool, a company that allows brands to deliver "sincerity at scale" using its social engagement automation software. Anqi enjoys things typical to people on this site such as social media, marketing, writing, and dry humor.

Last winter, the week after I came back from a much-needed vacation out of the country, I received a text message that made my heart drop. And not in the good way either. It was my credit card company, dropping me a casual line that there had been a suspicious charge made to my card.

The millennial generation is crucial to building a loyal customer base that keeps coming back over the period of a long life. This is a particularly challenging task because, according to Taryn Luna at The Boston Globe, millennials "have become skilled at finding ways to avoid the constant stream of advertising."

Too many salespeople are spending their energy on trying to get the consumer to choose their product. What they don't realize is that most consumers are not even at the stage of choosing any product - the prospect of them changing their minds is not even on the table.

We all know the old marketing gimmick of getting the person's first and last name and using it in the subject line of an email. But it turns out that consumers see right through the tricks. Which brings us to this question: How can we personalize our marketing messages without seeming less-than-genuine and turning away our customers?

If you spend much time around social media marketers, you’ll notice that this group of people has a particularly diverse pool of names: Social media director? Guru? Rockstar? Ninja? Missionary? Tactician? Blogger-in-chief? Idea inventor? What they call themselves can reveal something about them - and their company.